Images of ME and Beyond: A Dual-Screen Exhibit of Videos about Social Identity

Images of ME and Beyond: A Dual-Screen Exhibit of Videos about Social Identity

Curated by Craig Saddlemire ’05 and commisssioned by the Bates College Martin Luther King Jr. Day Committee

This MLK Day Jr. Day exhibit is open from noon through 5:30 p.m. in Perry Atrium, Pettengill Hall.

The making of video is the making of social identity – personal as well as collective. This video exhibit features work that tells a story about Maine people and/or was produced by Maine videomakers. In both cases, each video is made from one independent point-of-view, and serves to dialogue with the other videos about our individual and collective identities. They explore how identities are strengthened, segregated, imposed, exposed, or self-actualized. They also reveal how identity shapes relationships of power and equity. Through participating in free and independent media production, each video artist is helping to diversify and complicate the conventional identities that saturate “popular culture.”

Ubuntu: Humanity (Scott Hamann, 1 minute) Looks at the challenge of the first world’s indifference to third world poverty as articulated by Kayamandi, South African resident Peter Mayekiso.

Ubuntu: Kayamandi (Scott Hamann, 20 minutes) Shows first-hand the poverty cycle in post-Apartheid South Africa. Townships (or shantytowns) are the remnants of the Apartheid era, imprisoning black South Africans in a culture of Poverty.

Gay Marriage and Petitioning (Craig Saddlemire, 11 minutes) Craig Saddlemire talks with a petitioner who is collecting signatures to repeal the equal marriage law passed by the Maine State Legislature.

Walk Across Maine Drag-a-thon (Tim Berry, 15 minutes) An artistic investigation into Maine culture and how it relates to something typically outside of itself (like a drag queen), trying to do something good within/for it.

A Dark Life (Scott Hamann, 10 minutes) Depicts the struggles of a runaway teen in post-Apartheid South Africa.

In the Aftermath of Marriage: Equality in Maine (Ryan Conrad, 22 minutes) Seven queer and trans activists offer their often-unheard perspectives critiquing both the campaign and institution of marriage.

George Coleman Interview and Gordon Parks Lecture (Patrick Bonsant, 16 minutes) George Coleman talks about the Portland-based anti-poverty organization P.O.W.E.R. and class oppression. Followed by footage of Gordon Parks (activist, journalist, filmmaker) speaking at the Portland Museum of Art.

Birth at Home (Nicolle Littrel, 6 minu) Documents one couple’s homebirth and explores women’s rights and the stigma surrounding birth.

MVAN 40th Episode Music Video “This Little Light of Mine” (Craig Saddlemire, 5 minutes) A video montage of 4 years of documenting the Social Justice movement in Maine.

No On One – The Campaign to Protect Marriage Equality in Maine (Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll, 14 minutes) A portrait of the final days of the 2009 “No On One” campaign in Maine.

Seven Jewish Children (Pete Sirois, 9 minutes) People in Waterville do a street performance of a play by Caryl Churchill about how different parents describe atrocities (such as apartheid and genocide) to their children, starting in Nazi Germany and ending in Gaza.

Rooted in Community 2009 (Craig Saddlemire, 10 minutes) Youth from across the United States gather in Lewiston to develop leadership skills, share culture, and work to strengthen the food justice movement.